A group of marathon runners (290 males, 54 females, mean age 39.7 +/-
0.7 years) who participated in the Los Angeles Marathon recorded their
food and fluid intake throughout a 3-day period, with the time of day
denoted for each entry. Investigators coded each subject's food intak
e according to six time periods: 5:00-8:59 a.m., 9:00-10:59 a.m., 11:0
0 a.m.-1:59 p.m., 2:00-3:59 p.m., 4:00-7:59 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.-4:59 a
.m. The average intake of the runners consisted of 314 +/- 6 g (52.3%)
carbohydrates, 83.2 +/- 2.0 g (30.7%) fat, and 99.7 +/- 2.3 g (16.5%)
protein. Time periods for breakfast (13.7%), lunch (23.8%), and suppe
r (34.0%) accounted for 71.5% of total caloric intake, with snack time
periods contributing 28.5%. Breakfast calories were 68.9 +/- 0.9% car
bohydrate and 20.4 +/- 0.7% fat in contrast to supper calories, which
were 47.7 +/- 0.8% and 31.8 +/- 0.6%, respectively. A sizable proporti
on of the daily caloric intake of recreational marathon runners is con
tributed by snacks and food intake after 4:00 p.m.